Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work in creating
the Grameen Bank and evangelizing the use of micro-credit lending to alleviate poverty. He believes the next wave of possibility is social business: organizations
whose purposes shift from generating profits to solving
the problems of those in poverty.

The Drunkard's Walk is a wonderful addition to a growing category that Amazon recently called "Why We Act This Way." Mlodinow provides vivid stories to explain how our decision-making becomes hampered by our insistence on finding patterns and causes where randomness is the only phenomenon at work. Read this book to gain thoughtful insights into human psychology and find a new way of looking at the world.

For the most part, we behave rationally, right? Wrong, says Dan Ariely. From overpaying to procrastinating, we not only behave irrationally--but we behave
in predictably irrational ways over and over again. Ariely helps us understand these behaviors and suggests ways to break habits and develop patterns of thought
that will help us make better decisions. He believes that "recognizing where we depart from the ideal is an important part of the quest to truly understand ourselves, and one that promises many practical benefits."

Zobgy's reputation as a remarkably accurate political pollster lends strong credibility to release of his first book. In The Way We'll Be, Zogby attempts to makes sense of where the United States is headed as a whole
based on the attitudes of his polling respondents. He reports, "What gives me heart is that we are heading toward all the complications that lie ahead with so many of our best value intact."

About Dylan Schleicher

Dylan Schleicher has been a part of the 800-CEO-READ claque since 2003. Even though he's stayed on at the company, he has not stayed put. After beginning in shipping & receiving, he joined customer service and accounting before moving into his current, highly elliptical orbit of duties overseeing the ChangeThis and In the Books websites, the company's annual review of books and in-house design. He lives with his wife and two children in the Washington Heights neighborhood on Milwaukee's West Side.

Related Articles

Amazon has posted its editors' picks for 2008. In the Business & Investing category, they chose:
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder, Bantam
A Sense of Urgency by John P. Kotter, Harvard Business School Press (Jack Covert Selects)
The Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis in Brand Value and How to Avoid It by John Gerzema, Jossey-Bass
The Momentum Effect: How to Ignite Exceptional Growth by J.

Yesterday, you got a brief look into Rebecca Schlei Hartman's immense brain. Today, we will glimpse the bizarre workings of her husband's. Robbie Hartman is the author of one of my favorite lines in recent years:
Though I fully support guns, children, the flag and American entrepreneurship, I do not condone guns that shoot flags at children for money.

The other day I had an interesting conversation with the two Brafman brothers -- Ori and Rom -- who wrote Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior. Turns out we shouldn't always trust our gut instinct. I just posted the podcast if you'd like to learn why that's true.

A book that's seen a lot of press and hit the bestseller lists this year is Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely. Paul Dunay over at MarketingProfs had a chance to interview Dan. You can listen to that interview here.

The Penguin Blog has an excellent post on behavioral economics and why people buy more Penguin Classics than other publishers. Sales Managaer Fiona Buckland has obviously been following business literature, as she references not only the classic Why We Buy, but also recenty released Predictable Irrational and Nudge--the latter of which they've recently acquired the paperback rights to and will be releasing in January. (In her post, Buckland also links to a great review of Predictably Irrational from The Guardian)
Seth Godin had a very interesting post on the profitability of The Long Tail on Friday.